ROME, April 23 - Pope John Paul II opened meetings todaywith American cardinals on clerical sex scandals with astrongly worded apology to victims. But he sent conflictingsignals on a proposed zero-tolerance policy for priests whoabused minors.

"People need to know that there is no place in thepriesthood and religious life for those who would harm theyoung," the pope said in his most explicit speech on thetopic. He said such sexual abuse is "by every standardwrong and is rightly considered a crime by society."

"It is also an appalling sin in the eyes of God," the popeadded.

But he also seemed to suggest that offending priests mightdeserve a second chance, saying, "We cannot forget thepower of Christian conversion, that radical decision toturn away from sin and back to God, which reaches to thedepths of a person's soul and can work extraordinarychange."

The pope made his remarks to 12 United States cardinals whotraveled here this week for two days of meetings that theyhope will help restore trust in a church thrown into crisisby sexual abuse scandals and by the disclosures that somechurch officials did little to protect parishioners fromabusive priests.

In his speech, the pope seemed acutely aware of the damagethat had been done. "To the victims and their families,wherever they may be, I express my profound sense ofsolidarity and concern," he said.

Although the meeting was closed to reporters, the Vaticanreleased the text of the speech. American church officialsdiscussed it with the news media later. One official saidthat the pope had greeted each cardinal by name and that hehad left after the speech.

After the meeting, which included other Vatican leaders,several American cardinals said they were not sure how tointerpret the remarks, particularly as they applied to aproposal that would automatically bar priests accused ofsex abuse from the ministry.

"It isn't clear to me" whether the pope was saying heendorsed the zero-tolerance policy, Cardinal Francis E.George of Chicago said. "He says there's no place in thepriesthood for those who harm the young, but also speaks ofconversion. So I'm not sure where that leaves us on zerotolerance, and there is no consensus" among bishops.

Several Americans cited the difficulty of applying azero-tolerance policy, particularly given the emphasis onthe possibility of redemption.

Cardinal George described the tone of the first session as"very serious, even somber."

At meetings that continue on Wednesday, American bishopsare looking to John Paul and other top Vatican officialsfor guidance as they draft national protocols on howdioceses can prevent abuse. They will have lunch with thepope on Wednesday, hope to draw up a working list ofproposals by the end of the day, and intend to approve theguidelines at their national meeting in June in Dallas.

As expected, church leaders addressed a number of sensitivetopics today, including the role of homosexuals in thepriesthood and Catholic seminaries.

"People mentioned problems in society," Cardinal TheodoreE. McCarrick of Washington said. "One was sexualpermissiveness. One was homosexuality. One was lack ofcommitment."

Celibacy was a central focus, Cardinal George said, "not inquestioning the rule for the church, but asking how can westrengthen it."

At a briefing after the meeting, the head of the UnitedStates Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop Wilton D.Gregory, talked of his concern about the large number ofgay men in the priesthood.

"One of the difficulties we do face in seminary life orrecruitment is made possible when there does exist ahomosexual atmosphere or dynamic that makes heterosexualmen think twice" about entering because they fearharassment, Bishop Gregory said. "It is an ongoing struggleto make sure the Catholic priesthood is not dominated byhomosexual men."

There is no clear consensus on whether homosexuals shouldbe ordained or whether homosexuality is linked to thecurrent scandals, in which many victims are boys.

Cardinal McCarrick said the crucial issue was celibacy,whatever a priest's orientation.

Cardinal George, on the other hand, seemed to draw adistinction not only between priests who prey on childrenserially as opposed to those who pursue sexually matureminors in a single instance, but also between those whomake advances toward boys as opposed to girls.

Referring to John J. Geoghan, a former Boston priestaccused of abusing near 200 boys over 30 years, CardinalGeorge said, "There is a difference between a moral monsterlike Geoghan and an individual who, perhaps under theinfluence of alcohol," engages in inappropriate behaviorwith "a 16- or 17-year-old young woman who returns hisaffections."

Last week, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles raisedthe expectations of many American Catholics by saying thathe intended to bring up whether women should be ordainedand whether priests should be allowed to marry.

Those issues were not raised today, and they will not be,as it turns out. In an interview today, Cardinal Mahonysaid that he not only had not mentioned them in themeetings, but that he also did not intend to.

Asked about having raised the hopes of some Catholics onlyto disappoint them, the cardinal said it was lay people whowould be raising the issue, not at these meetings,obviously, but at a conference in his archdiocese nextyear.

In more general terms, though, he said: "I'm for discussionof anything within the church. We've had a married clergysince Day 1, and the question is whether that needs to berevisited and expanded."

Cardinal Mahony also said neither he nor anyone else at themeeting had raised the issue of whether Cardinal Bernard F.Law of Boston should resign. In a possible effort to shoreup support among fellow cardinals, Cardinal Law apologizedto them on Monday night at a closed-door meeting.

"He said if he had not made some terrible mistakes we wouldnot be here," Cardinal George recounted. "He did not speakabout resignation, and nobody asked him about it."

Nor will anyone else ask at this point, Cardinal McCarricksaid. "We've passed that point in the discussions," hesaid. "The time for that would have been at the beginning.We're over that."

On Monday, The Los Angeles Times quoted an anonymousAmerican cardinal as saying he and several others wouldpush Cardinal Law to resign at the meetings. Other Americancardinals also suggested on Monday that cardinals seemedsplit on the issue, though several said today that therenow appeared to be no move to take up the issue this week.

Cardinal Mahony is the lone American cardinal who has inthe past been openly critical of Cardinal Law's handling ofabuse cases. When asked in an interview today whether hewas the cardinal quoted in his hometown newspaper, CardinalMahony said:

"I would be the last one" to push for his resignation, hesaid of Cardinal Law, adding:

"I am 3,000 miles away from Boston. Decisions about hisfuture are completely out of my hands."

Several people at the meeting said the pope's message camethrough forcefully in his speech.

"I never heard him speak in such strong terms condemningsex abuse of minors by the clergy," Cardinal Anthony J.Bevilacqua of Philadelphia said. "He had some pretty strongwords about the clergy."

John Paul also made clear that he saw the problem in partas a crisis of leadership. "Because of the great harm doneby some priests and religious, the church herself is viewedwith distrust, and many are offended at the way in whichthe church's leaders are perceived to have acted in thismatter," the pope said.

He also called sexual abuse "a grave symptom of a crisis"that affects society as a whole.

"It is a deep-seated crisis of sexual morality, even ofhuman relationships, and its prime victims are the familyand the young," he said. "In addressing the problem ofabuse with clarity and determination, the church will helpsociety to understand and deal with the crisis in itsmidst."

Cardinals said they did not feel scolded by the pope, butwere clear that the Vatican officials were listening toAmericans and would expect them to solve their ownproblems.

"He's not happy that we made the mistakes, but heunderstands how we could have arrived at them," CardinalMcCarrick said. "Now it's our responsibility to put thisspiritual message from him into practice. The holy fatherhas said to the bishops, `O.K., now do something.' "

German Church to Study Guidelines

BERLIN, April 23 -Catholic bishops here agreed today to form a commission tostudy guidelines on clergy sex abuse of minors. The Germanchurch has left it up to each diocese to deal with priestsaccused of molestation and has no national data onoffenders.

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